compass
noun
an instrument for determining directions, as by means of a freely rotating magnetized needle that indicates magnetic north.
compassing
-
present participleof compass.present participle
A verb form that is used in progressive verb constructions and may also function as a modifier or a gerund.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Often it is a twig, a flower, a glass of water, a fire-steel, or something else, in appearance of no importance, which they employ as a means of compassing their intent.
From The Serapion Brethren. Vol. II by Ernst Theordor Wilhelm Hoffmann
For he would not have supposed that Miss Judy was known by any one beyond the compassing hills, so completely had her life seemed bound about by the wooded borders of the village.
From Oldfield A Kentucky Tale of the Last Century by Nancy Huston Banks
In the spring of the year 1763, Pontiac, in compassing his grand scheme of hostility, sent, among the rest, to the Indians of Michillimackinac, inviting them to aid him in the war.
From The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada by Francis Parkman
They toiled upward with stubborn determination, and wasted breath in voluble commination of the length of the way, when they could have employed it more usefully in compassing it.
From White Fire by John Oxenham
But there seemed to be no means of compassing this end, try as he would to think of some way.
From The Boy Aviators' Flight for a Fortune by John Henry Goldfrap
